In 1759, London’s British Museum opened its doors for the first time – the first free national public museum in the world. But how did it come into being? This talk discusses the life of the museum’s founder: Sir Hans Sloane. Born in 1660, Sloane amassed a fortune as a London society physician, became president of the Royal Society and Royal College of Physicians, and assembled an encyclopedic collection of specimens and objects – the most famous cabinet of curiosities of its time – which became the foundation of the British Museum.